Humphrys and Davis: Hubris and Sneer

If sneering and partisanship were the mark of excellence in radio news journalism, then recent editions of "The Today Programme" would sweep the awards.

Yesterday it was John Humphrys with Michael Gove, today it was the turn of Evan Davis with Chris Grayling. Not that I'm a big fan of Mr. Grayling either, but it would be so nice to go back to those good old days when the BBC really did pay more than just lip service to professional standards -- when people like Robin Day could deliver interesting, insightful and moreover, tough interviews that focussed on well-researched facts, and without the need for grandstanding or for couching questions in sneering and insulting language. Go listen to the interviews here, if you want to know exactly what I'm referring to.

I used to be a very vocal defender of the BBC and of the licence fee, and to be fair I still regard it as value for money, but these days I find there's a lot less to defend, and much more to criticize.

It's been a life-long observation of mine that programme makers, and particularly BBC programme makers, never ever (ever) accept any criticism of their programmes....ever. If they should continue in that vein, against a tide of evidence to the contrary, then quite frankly, they deserve all that's coming to them.

RANT 01: Nick Robinson

What’s up with Nick Robinson? Who cares if he’s the venerable political editor for the BBC – these days the only good thing I can think to say about him is that he isn’t Andrew Marr.















Here is a man carrying the ultimate gold card of British journalism, and a contacts list most aspiring hacks would kill for, and yet recently, he’s been calling it all wrong – then playing catch-up.

April wasn’t such a good month for Robinson’s lot. “Smeargate” confirmed what many had suspected about the Lobby – that they were little more than cogs in a Downing Street spin machine. So, as if to prove he wasn’t in someone else’s pocket, Robinson pulled off a half-decent Budget interview with the Chancellor, and even showed some teeth. But then, when the Telegraph switched on their “Chinese drip” of scandalous revelations about MPs' expenses, predictably he reverted to type. His initial reaction was to play the story down:

“Yet now the reputation of the mother of all parliaments has been brought low by rules…”

Yep, that’s right Nick, it was the rules wot done it guv – not the thieving MPs.

“…Nothing revealed today has been enough to trigger an investigation let alone a resignation…”

Right, and how hollow does that sound just two weeks later?

And so he went on, with touches of top spin here and there, trying to sound balanced, objective and fair, but really desperately wanting to convey the (mistaken) idea that things weren’t nearly as shameful as some of us “corrosively cynical” types were making out.

In the conspiracy of the so-called “progressive consensus”, of which political correctness has been the most exoteric expression, Auntie Beeb’s job has always been to say reassuring things to a docile public. But the public’s visceral reaction to news about their troughing MPs was anything but docile, and Robinson completely misread it. Even then, as the line of the thundering tsunami of anger swelled visibly on the horizon, he peered bird-like to camera, through super-strength spectacles – and persisted! Nick my friend, it’s very simple: people really understand money, and times are hard.

None of this has done him any favours, and as one columnist put it:

“Poor Nick Robinson looks like he has had the stuffing knocked out of him. Those columnists who have made a career out of saying we should have more respect for politicians look pretty stupid now.”

I think so too. Rant over.